Having bemoaned the dearth of good "What Is It" subjects
in numerous past articles, I now find myself with an interesting
conundrum. Just exactly what does an item's obscure history
have to do with its rarity? Is it that only one turns up and
finds its way to the masses to be examined at length? Or can
it be a very common item that has gone out of favor because
of technological change due to the ever-shifting marketplace?
This item may have once been most common and perhaps was something
that was never examined or recognized by the tool pundits searching
for the eternal answer. The solution seems to lie with technological
change: a new idea equals a new method and out goes the old
method along with the purpose-built device. I'm not sure how
popular this item was in the trades or manufacturing, but it
became a rather good candidate for the current "What Is
It" subject.

This item appeared this autumn almost simultaneously at three
different sources in three different countries. All seemed to
be in good original condition. Coincidence? Was it a dumping
of old stock by a manufacturer? A thinning of the herd by an
obsessed collector? Or perhaps was it just, as I think it was,
one of those unexplained phenomena that always seem to happen,
like when you go to use a special tool and it's broken or needs
a lot of adjustments. This item appeared in an English auction
where it was incorrectly described as a milk bottle cap sealer.
Its other two appearances were in Canada and the United States,
where both merchants were unsure as to its origins.

F.
Cortez Wilson of Chicago, Illinois, sought with patent #502,339,
dated August 1, 1893, to improve the method of sealing metallic
containers by providing a crimping tool to positively seal sheet-metal
caps. Previous known sealing methods of glass vessels used in
the emerging oil and gasoline trades were prone to breakage
and seepage. By incorporating a metal cap and providing a positive
crimped seal, a metal container could be used, thereby eliminating
the costly glass containers. The patent illustration clearly
shows the method of use. This tool would have been used solely
in a manufacturing process and generally would not be found
in the average sheet-metal mechanic's workbox.

New owners of old tools always seem to attempt some type of
rehabilitation, be it cosmetic or actual mechanical manipulations.
In the case of this device, it apparently was disassembled but
not overly cleaned. The reassembly, however, was incorrect.
The three small crimping rolls were inverted in the reassembly
making this tool unusable.

D.S.
Orr

D.S. Orr has been a collector, user and student of woodworking
and metalworking tools and practices for more than 40 years.
Recently retired, he has devoted even more time to these endeavors.